My Mattingly Collection - 2002 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Bat Relic Card

There's nothing I enjoy more than a relic card for one of my Player Collections. I came across this Mattingly Sweet Spot for a little less than $10 and decided to - not buy it. Yes, in a rare feat of self-control, I recognized that this was probably a little too much to spend on another bat card of Donnie Baseball.

 

Don't get me wrong, I WANT THEM ALL. But Mattingly, for better and for worse, demands curiously high rates for any/all of his cards due to his loyal and passionate fans. So, often I find myself on the sidelines as I watch so many terrific-looking, higher-end releases go to good homes elsewhere. 

 

Fortunately, nobody else had their eye on this Hit Man because the card was re-listed at a discounted price of just over $5 - an amount I could happily accept! I like Upper Deck's design on this one, with emphasis evenly divided between the relic and a great follow-through image of Maatingly.

 

 

Yep, it's Don and the bat, no more, no less. It's a sharp card in person and is in really good shape. Sometime these relic cards that are listed on the cheap come with hidden dings near the relic or banged up corners and edges. For the most part, it's tough to get too upset over the condition of relic cards in my book. Which does beg the question, why? These are cards too, so why do I care so much less about their condition? Very interesting thought. If I had forked over $5 for a mid-90's Mattingly insert, for example, I would be disappointed if it showed up with dinged corners and crushed edges. Is this a normal double-standard for any you?

The back recycles a zoom-in on the front side's image with a standard accompanying relic card "CONGRATULATIONS!" statement.

I need to total up my Mattingly relic cards. I'm sure it's way less than what it needs to be right now.

Right!?

At any rate, I'm pumped to add this one to my Mattingly Collection!

Thanks for reading!

Ryan

My Mattingly Collection - 2001 Topps Archives Reserve, Bat Relic

Not that anybody was really worried or about the lack of posts over here at Ryan's Pitch...but just in case.

The Fall really overwhelmed me with family and work and school and...life. I had so much that I wanted to share with you guys in October as an epic baseball season was coming to an end. A season with so many emotional connections to the Ryan's Pitch Collection - but I had to place the blog on the back burner to make sure I could take care of business.

October became Halloween and then Thanksgiving was looming large and then December hit with a fury. But now - now that finals are done and the office has not a creature stirring - now for a few days...I'm all out of business!

I've missed you guys!

(group hug)

And I've missed my hobby time. I have a year left in my MBA program so 2015 may prove to be just as challenging, but as you all know, I am an eternal optimist - so here's hoping! Until then, I'd like to end 2014 on a positive note with a few posts. I'd love to provide one of those "STATE OF THE COLLECTION" posts. My collecting approach has truly evolved over the past year (or so) and I am very excited about tackling some much needed house cleaning in parallel with a renewed vigor for laser-guided collecting focus. And just who wouldn't want to hear about all of THAT?

For now, though, let's check out a slick Mattingly card I recently picked up! I found this bad boy for the price of two modern packs. It wasn't in a shop or at a show (what are those?) and in this case, I didn't even have a picture. This 2001 Topps Archives Reserve fell in my Hobby Ice Age, so I didn't have a clue as to what it might resemble. I am familiar with the Archives series, but what did the "reserve" label indicate?

At $5 though, it was a Mattingly card that I DIDN'T have and a bat card at that, so I scooped it up. And I am sure glad that I did:

I know, I know - another damn version of the Hit Man's '84 Topps rookie card. Isn't it sweet!? It's shiny and refractor-y in all the right, biased ways for me. This one was in great shape, too - for which I am always thankful. The corners are sharp and the surface is pretty clean. The Archives logo is slightly annoying in the top right, but I'm over it. The circular bat relic is kind of a cool contrast with the otherwise well squared-away card.

To the back: 

Pretty much the standard with the exception of the fine-print line at the bottom and the...wait, what's that? A certification hologram?

Enhance!

Houston, that's a serial number! Woo-hoo! God bless these cards from the Hobby Ice Age. I am supposing this an early example of serialization that was utilized as the hobby was figuring out just how they were going to handle this attribute. It's kind of a neat variant, even if it covers up some statistics. Good thing I can easily check the other 30 versions of this card.

Returning some focus to my Mattingly collection is one component of my 2014 Collecting Evolution story-line. It was very easy to dial-in on my modern day PC's:

Craig Kimbrel
Freddie Freeman
Anthony Rizzo
Dellin Betances
David Robertson
Eric Jagielo

Unfortunately, these quests often left Donnie in the dust despite his status as my favorite all-time player. Not to mention, there are SO many cards during the aforementioned Ice Age that I haven't even begun to discover or enjoy and are probably quite affordable.

Hopefully this card is another great step in the right direction for 2015. I say "another" because I was able to scoop up a "Player Lot" of Mattingly cards over the past couple of months that has been a joy to flip through during free moments here and there. Some good, old-fashioned player collecting.

Anyways, it feels great to be back and I hope this doesn't turn out to be a one-hit wonder. I hope you all had a great 2014, find much peace with you and yours for the holidays, and hit the base path in 2015 with tremendous gusto!

Thanks for reading!

Ryan

My Mattingly Collection - 2000 Upper Deck Legendary Lumber Bat Relic Card

Yes!

I absolutely love this card.   Mattingly is my favorite all-time player and I pick up just about every relic card of his that I can at a reasonable price - which can be a real challenge sometimes!

I snagged this one, though.....and Upper Deck REALLY delivered.   The design is brilliant, mixing in Yankee blue and pinstripes alongside a black & white photo of a classic Mattingly follow-through.

But that's not the best part.

The best part, to me, is the carved "NY" Yankees insignia in the bat relic that allows for a bold blue color on the card to shine through and really make it POP.   Here's the card:

We even get a classy silver foil facsimile Donnie autograph at the bottom.  Great balance!   Here's a closer look at the bat relic:
 

And here's the back:

The standard blurb and a repeat of the picture on the front, something that we saw with my earlier post on the Jeter/A-Rod relic card.   Undoubtedly, must have been a standard policy.   The continuation of the bold blue stripe on the back is terrific.

Great card - very, VERY ecstatic to add this one to my Mattingly collection.   It MIGHT overtake another Mattingly relic in my collection......MIGHT......but this other one is pretty stellar :)

Thanks for reading!

My Yankees Collection - 2000 Upper Deck SPx Jeter & A-Rod Winning Materials Relic Card

Okay, I am just on a roll with these Hobby Ice Age cards being added into my collection....

I love Jeter and am ambivalent towards A-Rod.   Yeah, there's a lot to hate and I am certainly not shedding any tears over his absence (and possible departure?), but I feel like he has been singled out from a larger group of players.

One positive side-effect of the A-Rod disdain is that his cards and cards on which he appears can be had for a little bit less these days, so I was able to scoop this JETER relic card up for a reasonable price!

Yeah, a "game-used base" will always be kind of weird to me, but it's a nice change of pace.   I wish you could look up exactly which game it is from - I suppose then you could check out the box score and figure out who else might have touched the base?   That could be some fun research.....do you see the DIRT (game used!) on the base piece?   Cool!

The pictures are pretty solid.  I love the big smile from Jeter and A-Rod's sweet shades.   And let's not look past the fact that this is a bat-relic card for a 500 HR Club member.   PEDs or not, he's on that list statistically.

Here's the back:

I'm a little puzzled as to why they couldn't use a couple of different photos for these guys on the back, but I know how expensive it is for companies to maintain licenses for use of materials......

In the end, this is another great Jeter relic for my Yankees Collection and I'm thrilled!

Thanks for reading -